Weekly Groceries

Today I went to Kroger to do our weekly grocery shopping. My goal lately has been to spend only about $35-$40 a week in groceries for our family of three. This week I only spent $26.11 so I thought it was a blog-worthy moment!

As you can see from my receipt, I bought 47 items with that $26 after these discounts:

$30.62 in my manufacturer's coupons -- I get most of those in the Sunday paper as well as a few that I find and print off the internet. I buy the two paper bundle each week to maximize the deals I find by being able to get two of each, and I'm also always on the hunt for anyone who's willing to give me their left over coupon inserts so I'll have even more options.

$4.50 was bonus savings -- this category includes several things. First of all, Kroger offers e-coupons. You go to this site, click on the Shortcuts link, enter your Kroger card number, and then load up clipless coupons you can use while you're in the store (and once you get done with the Shortcut site, go back to the Kroger site and enter the P & G Brandsaver site to do the same). I love taking advantage of this -- no coupons to clip or keep up with, just add to the card, wait one hour for them to get loaded by the site, and then you're ready to save! Also included in the bonus saving total is any doubling or tripling coupons you may have. The first scan is included in the manufacturer's coupon category, but any day Kroger will triple coupons up to .39 and double coupons up to .50. This is a GREAT way to find some free or nearly free deals -- for example, the worcester sauce I got today was on sale for $1 a bottle, but since I had a .35 coupon for it and the store triples that coupon, I actually got the bottle for -.05 (which means I got a nickel off something else in my cart... unfortunately they won't give me any money back!).

39.35 in Kroger Plus Savings -- This is how much I saved by purchasing items Kroger was offering on sale this week when I used my Kroger card. Grapes were on sale for .97 a pound when you use your Kroger card, so I bought 2 1/2 pounds and saved $3.94 off the regular price of the grapes and Kate gets to enjoy fresh grapes this week! Also, Kroger occasionally has great deals to save extra money by purchasing a certain total number of a certain group of items. This week their deal was to purchase 10 items (that were already on sale) and receive $5 off the total of your purchase -- and you could do that up to three times in one order! So I stockpiled some of the items that were especially good deals when I combined the sale prices with my coupons in order to collect 30 of the designated items so I could save $15 off my order. WOW! I LOVE IT when Kroger has deals like this!

So I saved a total of $74.47, which was 73% total savings. This is my absolute favorite part of my entire Kroger receipt!! Each week I rush home and I can hardly get in the door before I'm trying to tell Cody how much I saved and what percentage that was. I'm thrilled anytime it's over 50%, pleased if it's somewhere in the 40% range, and disappointed in myself if it's any lower than that (but if that's the case I try to make it up the next week!).

I do try to buy as many items as possible on sale and stockpile things I know we use every week when I find great deals (chicken, beef, canned soups, etc) to help me make dinner, but as you can see from my pictures I still buy things that aren't on a great sale and that I don't have a coupon for as needed. For example, the 3 ready to heat and eat hot dogs from Oscar Meyer are for Cody's lunches at work. They cost $3.99, I saved .40 by using my Kroger card for a grand total of $3.59 for 3 hot dogs. Not an excellent deal, but Cody loves them, they are easy for him to pop in the microwave at work, and I rationalize the purchase by thinking how much cheaper those hot dogs are than him running down the street to Wendy's or Whataburger to grab lunch. So because we're able to save a good amount of money on groceries doesn't mean we are restricted to only items on sale or only items that we have coupons for - I just don't get too many of those special items in one week of shopping.

It definitely takes time to clip and organize the coupons, research the internet coupons to print, select the e-coupons to add to my card, look through the paper to make my list, and brain-power in the store to be sure I keep it all together, but right now the money I'm able to save my family is more than worth that effort! If you'd like any more info on how you can start saving, I'd be GLAD to help however I can!